Freedom Issue #321
Virtualbox-Libre is insulting me.
0%
Description
What happens: it says, in red letters: "We hope you don't use non-free GNU/Linux distros and non-free operating systems, since using them is to surrender your freedom."
It doesn't matter whether it infringes freedom 0, or foo. What matters is that I made the choice of installing a 100% free operating system, and that I think I deserve not to be reminded not to install non-free software. Moreover, it states that "We" hope, whomever that is, but it really freaks me out, and I have pages and pages of Zamyatin's "We" resounding into my shocked mind. And frankly, coming from my machine, running free software I chose to install on it, it feels pretty much like being visited by proselytes from the Jehova's Witnesses, the Church of Scientology, la Campora, or any kind of Thought Police, between dessert and sex.
What should happen: nothing. Nothing at all.
How to fix it: add a setting flag to remove that proselyte message, and don't put it in red in the first place. That's aggressive. The flag could be called: DO_NOT_PREACH_TO_THE_CHOIR, or IM_NOT_A_VIRGIN, although that one may not be as universal as the former.
History
Updated by csolisr almost 11 years ago
If you want a distro that doesn't complain about your decisions, switch to Arch. I won't write down the procedure as it violates the rules of this site, but it's possible to do it in-place. Now, what really bothers me is that VirtualBox doesn't actively detect whether the user is trying to run a non-free distro and preemptively close the session when detected.